Tag Archives: cardiology

It may be “old school”, but this is still probably one of the best embryology videos out there. Watch it with your notes, textbook or review book in hand as an additional guide and it definitely makes things much clearer. Always worth going back for review if you’ve seen it before too!

This is probably one of my favorite video series on cardiac arrhythmias. I haven’t watched all the videos yet, but the ones I’ve completed have been great! The EKG video is also a nice introduction to the physiology behind EKG tracings if you need some help understanding that as well. This is definitely a great resource for anyone studying electrophysiology of the heart, so be sure to check it out!

In addition, I’ve added one of my favorite action potential images that can be found through Google. It’s an excellent visual representation of how each area of the heart contributes to the overall EKG tracing. Enjoy!

Please go check out the latest Medical Minded podcast episode Heart Murmurs – MS, MR, MVP, AS and AR. This podcast is an expansion on the concepts presented in the Introduction to Heart Sounds episode, so make sure if checked it out if you haven’t already. In this latest episodes I discuss mitral stenosis, mitral regurgitation, mitral valve prolapse, aortic stenosis and aortic regurgitation. If you plan on only learning the basics of heart murmurs, these are the 5 you need to know!

Also, if there is one thing that I can’t reiterate enough about learning this stuff it’s to develop an understanding of the underlying concepts. If you learn the basic principles, the heart sounds will make sense. You should be able to work out why each sound happens if you truly understand the material. Remember, you need a solid foundation to build a house!

A new episode of Medical Minded podcast covering hypertension is now available! It seems like it takes a couple days for it to become available on iTunes, but if you’d like to view it now, check out the link below. You can left-click to listen through your browser or right-click to save the file to your computer. Remember, feedback is always appreciated! Thanks!

The following video provides an excellent explanation of how to approximate the QRS axis in order to quickly determine if a QRS axis deviation is present. This is part 2 of a series, so those unfamiliar with knowledge of EKG leads may need to begin with part 1. Just follow the video I’ve included and you should be able to find part 1 in the related videos. If you want to begin understanding how to interpret an EKG, this is a great place to start!

Imagine someone without a heartbeat, completely flatlined, yet still alert, oriented and living. Continuous flow, artificial hearts may sound like something of the future, but not anymore!

The artificial heart was constructed in a physician’s garage from materials purchased at home depot. Subsequently, experiments were conducted on animals using the homemade device. After surgically implanting the heart into these ainmals, they’d simply wake up the next day and resume their normal lifestyle. Minus one glaring difference of course… no pulse. They are flatlined.

The artificial heart works using turbines, creating a constant bloodflow throughout the body, similar to water moving through a garden hose. A patients heart would be completely removed and in its place, this artificial heart would keep their body alive. Ultimately, this could save the lives of the 300 to 400 thousand people that die from heart failure each year in the US alone.

The procedure was even performed on a man named Craig Lewis who was diagnosed with amyloidosis. The disease led to heart failure and after being examined by physicians, they determined he would die in 12 – 24 hours. This innovative device was his only chance at survival so the surgical team went to work. The next day, the patient was alert & oriented, despite his complete lack of a pulse. As stated in the video, “No heartbeat, no pulse, flatline pressure”.

According to researchers at Case Western Reserve University, a single gene known as HEXIM1 has been shown to suppress breast cancer AND increase heart health!

Heart disease and cancer are the leading causes of death in the United States. The gene increases the number of blood vessels within the heart, as well as their density and supresses the growth of breast cancer tumors.

Furthermore, the gene showed increased efficiency in mice even without exercise. So basically, the mice had the heart health of an athlete without the exercise! As described in the article, many cancer treatments have damaging effects on the heart, so a cancer treatment that simultaneously increases heart health would be monumental.

Further research is being conducted to determine if treatment for heart attacks is plausible as well.

This is a very interesting article and could lead to some revolutionary innovations in medicine. Once they determine a way to connect it to the brain, I wonder what it will actually feel like. Can it distinguish between pain/pleasure? If it does correlate excessive pressure as pain, I hope they make a safety threshold so any electrical malfunctions don’t lead to excruciating pain for the wearer! The increased sensitivity as compared to human skin could lead to some profound advances in cardiology.

I’m all about new medical innovations and using technology to help people with medical problems. The idea is that robots require special sensors to be able to be able to navigate around the world. I thought the short little article was fascinating, because the sensors and the “artifical” skin that is used for them could potentially lead to more life-like skin for prostetics and could lead to improvements in skin grafting. I think it’s pretty nifty, if ya ask me.